Stephen Hawking

My hero is Stephen Hawking, our generation's great astrophysicist. There are many things about him that I can tell you - like his life, his disease, and his accomplishments. He is a great man that knows things that the world wouldn’t know about without him. Everyone should know him and that’s why I’m writing this now. So be ready to know more about this man than you possibly already know.

Stephen as a little boy on the left (www.theblogofrecord.com)

Stephen was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death, 1/8/1942 in Oxford, England. He was an active 3 year old and interested in the night sky. In his college years, he went to many different schools and graduated in 1965. Later, he married Jane Wilde and had three children. Now he spends his life researching space and sleeping in his wheelchair, and here’s why.

That is Stephen at George Washington University (www.huffingtonpost.com)

When he went to Oxford, he was clumsier than usual and his speech was slurred. It turns out that he had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. After he married, he almost lost his ability to speak forever, but a computer programmer in California made a speech program that allowed Stephen to speak. Now he controls the program with his right cheek muscle with sensors attached to his chair. But, he’s still working, researching, and accomplishing things, even when he is crippled. Here are some of his accomplishments.

Stephen getting the Pius XI medal (marymagdalen.blogspot.com)

Back before he couldn’t talk, Stephen demonstrated that matter, in the form of radiation, can escape the gravitational force of a collapsed star or in simple terms, a black hole. This made him become a member of the Royal Society at the age of 32. Later, he earned the prestigious Albert Einstein award and was honored with the Pius XI gold medal for science from Pope Paul VI. Stephen also wrote a book Large Scale Structure of Space Time.

Well, if you don’t know why he is my hero yet, I’ll tell you now. He is my hero because he did all this while he had ALS. Most people think if they are or get crippled, they think their lives are ruined, but they aren’t. Stephen Hawking is an inspiration to people around the globe, disabled or not. So when you are studying black holes in school, think of Stephen Hawking for getting the information about them so you can know more. If you want to know more about Stephen Hawking, read the book "Stephen Hawking A Biography".